“I’m going to attend an anniversary”: Narayan Chaura told his wife before leaving for Amritsar
Almost everyone in Chaura’s adopted city knows him personally, but nobody is willing to talk about his past or the recent incident. His native village, Chaura Bajwa, is located 3 km away from Dera Baba Nanak. Villagers recall that Chaura’s family left the village after the 1988 floods and never returned.
Harjit Singh, Panch of Chaura Bajwa village, described Chaura as soft-spoken and affable. “We knew of his reputation as a militant, but he never discussed his past with anybody,” Singh said.
Chaura’s wife, Jasmeet Kaur, remained calm as police searched their house. “My husband got up early today and left the house around 5.45 am. He told me he was attending an important anniversary at the Darbar Sahib gurdwara in Amritsar,” Kaur said.
Cops from the Dera Baba Nanak police station arrived at the house an hour after the assassination attempt. An ASI led the search operation. “We’re here to check if there are any incriminating documents in the house. After an incident like this, we usually conduct a search operation,” the ASI explained. The police seized several pen drives, diaries, and documents.
Jasmeet Kaur revealed that her husband, Narayan Singh Chaura, would attend birth and death anniversaries of ex-militants. “He would invariably go and mark his presence on such occasions,” she said.
Police officers believe Chaura might have conducted a recce yesterday, as he had visited the Darbar Sahib shrine. Chaura’s brother, Narinder Singh Bajwa, was a member of the Dera Baba Nanak block samiti in 2018.
MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa denied allegations that he was instrumental in making Bajwa a member. “Whenever an incident involves a gangster or militant, my name is unnecessarily dragged into it,” Randhawa said.
The MP condemned the attack on Sukhbir Badal and criticised the Punjab Police for their failure to prevent the incident. “Everybody in the police department knew Chaura was living in Dera Baba Nanak and had militant leanings. He should have been taken into preventative custody,” Randhawa said.
